June 23, 2014

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Beginning

Three 3 lb packages of honeybees arrived in mid-may. Each package contains approximately 11,000 bees. These bees have been installed in three hives and are currently building their colonies.

For the last month the bees have developed their colonies building comb on wax foundation. They have been feeding on sugar syrup and local flowering plants (dandelions and clover).

And have been busy nursing their next generation brood. The observation hive is still in concept development and set to begin with designs and construction in July. Until then, I’m checking the hives every few days, refilling the sugar syrup and checking the colonies health.

Additionally, the US government recently passed legislation for $8 million dollars in funding for the EPA’s creation of a task force to directly investigate and determine the causes of dwindling honeybee populations across the country. Read about it here.

About

Each summer selected students from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) are awarded internship opportunities through the Maharam STEAM Fellowship in Applied Art and Design. Starting in 2012, the New York-based textile company Maharam agreed to generously fund these fellowship opportunities for RISD students through 2016.

The Maharam STEAM Fellowship in Applied Art and Design provides stipends of up to $5,000 each for select internships with a government agency or nonprofit organization. Students must research and find their own placements and submit detailed proposals at the beginning of the year outlining how their internship experience will highlight and strengthen the role of visually acute critical thinkers and problem solvers in helping to improve public policy and tackle large social issues.

Maharam supports the STEAM Fellowship program because, like RISD, the company believes in the economic progress and breakthrough innovation that comes from the combination of art and design with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) – that STEM + Art = STEAM. The RISD/Maharam partnership supports the college’s broader STEM to STEAM initiative, which advocates for long-term societal embrace of the arts and design to create a future that is both culturally and economically vibrant.